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Hi All
I thought before the year ends i would post some details of my CNC mill.
See the standard YouTube video here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpSji_Dqftw&feature=youtu.beA bit about the machine:
It is based on an old Taylor Hobson engraving machine, the type with the big pantograph sat on the top. The reason for using this is simple, I was given it for free and it was in excellent condition.
I removed the pantograph and made some brackets to fit a spindle head from here
http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1663I bought it a while ago when the dollar to Sterling exchange rate was good.
I originally planned to use it as a manual machine so fitted a DRO with glass slides (it proved very handy when setting up the CNC side) I bought it direct from China from one of my suppliers and is very impressive and has loads of functionality.
You may notice the square plastic drain pipe swarf guards over the glass slide.
Having already been aware of mach3 software I very quickly decided to take the plunge and convert it to CNC so I contacted Lester at MEDW and bought one of his ‘Mach in a box’ systems, see here
http://medw.co.uk/wiki/?page=Mach-in-a-boxI bought the power supplies, break out boards, motor drivers and motors from Lester as well.
The break out boards are Lester own design but the motors and drivers are these.
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Stepper-MotorsI found it all very easy to set up and Lester was very helpful and good in addressing any problems.
I also bought a breakout boards, motors and drivers for my lathe but I have not finished that yet. There is also a rotary axis for the mill that I bought from Arc Euro trade
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Workholding/Rotary-TablesIt has been great fun building it and I have been able to do paid work on it as well.
There is still some additional wiring I want to do on it and I may do a completely new electrical cabinet for it. The electronics are presently mounted in a steel medicine cabinet (a free salvage item) and the cabinet is mounted on the wall above the machine. I really need to move the screen to a lower level as it is difficult to look at the machine and the screen without getting a sore neck.
I am hanging back on making any major changes to it at the moment as the Taylor Hobson machine has some limitation, which may persuade me to build my own mechanical slide ways etc.
First the Y axis is very short with only about 60mm of useful travel, secondly the slide way are not good for continuous movement. The way the original machine was used was to move the table to just present the work piece and then lock it in position and do all the movement with the pantograph. Basically the slide ways have to be left slack or they bind. This could be improved by scraping the slide ways in but I am starting to think it may not be worth the effort because of the limited Y axis travel.
Anyway I thought I might share it with you.
Brian
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